Star Wars Fan Turns Living Room Into Hoth Diorama

You’re not gonna find a bigger fan of re-creating large semi-historical battle fields on a 1/7th scale than me, but there may a point where excess is reached. I’m not saying it is here, clearly this is a perfectly reasonable re-creation of motion picture history which is above mockery. I’m just saying, there might be a line, somewhere.

Star Wars fandom is its own special brand of devotion. To be fair, no specific sub set of fans has had their love so often and so cruelly twisted and mangled as Star Wars fans have. By its own creator no less. From the initial films, released between 1977 and 1983, which fans were perfectly happy with, through the re-releases, full of tweaking and changes that no one asked for, up to the promise of the prequels, so heavily anticipated, and so poorly delivered, Star Wars fans have had to maintain a devotion to their love like no other group.

It is the kind of love that inspires a man to build a sprawling 140 square foot diorama in his living room depicting the The Empire Strikes Back’s snowy “Battle of Hoth”. The pictures that follow are not augmented by Photoshop, the explosions and smoke effects are achieved using lights encased in stretched, painted cotton. This diorama is no doubt impressive and a testament to the enduring legacy of the original trilogy that George Lucas can never kill, no matter how hard he tries. Of course, while this whole scene would be worth so much more if it hadn’t been removed from the box, the argument can be made that it DOES look more awesome this way.

The Empire’s AT-ATs, plodding over the dug in Rebel forces.An exploded AT-AT tumbling to the tundra.Darth Vader takes a personal hand in securing the Rebel base on Hoth, searching for that pesky boy of his.Rebel pilots taking their sweet ass time prepping their defense.The Rebels pull the old show lace trick with the tow cable on the chunky stems of a soon to be downed AT-AT.The rare Hoth Jawas attempt to salvage a downed Rebel ship meets resistance.“How much more plan than ‘shoot the big walking things’ do those pilots need?!”A walker takes a hit and keeps on trudging.An idea of the ground view scope of this sprawling living room snowscape.Lord Vader, advancing through the snowy battle field in his anti-camouflaged slimming all black cape and life support suit, pauses to force lift a Rebel scout for funsies.An AT-AT eyes the shield generator, which seems like over kill since their forces are already on the ground.C-3PO flailing about uselessly near the shield generators. True to the franchise.These are the expendable trench warriors holding the line while Leia slips away.A protocol droid in its natural habitat: snow combat.Vader has few little thrills in his mostly burned to a crisp life. Choking wayward pilots with his bare hands being one of them.The smoke and fire effects in this diorama really put it over the top. And why is that droid warming its hands on that blaze?The more nimble AT-ST “Chicken Walkers” flanking the larger AT-AT.The whole battle as seen from behind the doomed Rebel lines.